


Eco Watchpoint

by WolffyLuna



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Australia, Female-Centric, Gen, Horseback Riding, Horses, Pre-Femslash, Science
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2018-07-18 03:37:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7297891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolffyLuna/pseuds/WolffyLuna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Zarya didn’t have a fear of heights. She’d trained herself out of it. Walking along a tightrope several metres across the ground, or jumping down off a balcony? No sweat. But six feet up off the ground, sitting on a swaying platform out of her control? She grasped the pommel, hopping no one would notice.</i>
</p>
<p>Written for the prompt: "Zarya, Tracer and Mei going horse riding. Magpies."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eco Watchpoint

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks for diseonfire.tumblr.com for sending me this prompt! And apologies to Holly, Woody, and Agi, who were inserted in this fic without their permission, though I have no clue how I would have gotten it anyway considering that can't speak or write.

Lena braked and pulled the car into a park. Zarya loosened her grip on the chair, and shook her fingers to bring feeling back into them. Tracer drove the ute like a cross between a rally car and a tank; all tight turns, high speed and complete disregard for the terrain.

Lena grinned. “Wasn’t so bad, was it luv? Got here in one piece.” She pointed towards Mei and the other woman she was talking to. “And we didn’t keep ‘em waiting too long.”

Zarya stayed quiet, and hopped out of the ute. Mei turned and waved, and Tracer waved back with bigger arm movements. Zarya just held up a hand. Horses milled about, grazing on the grass at the edge of the road and weaving between the floats. Bags of scientific equipment littered the ground around Mei. Zarya wasn’t sure she could get out of the wall of stuff she had made around herself.

Mei held a hand out at the woman. “This is Alicia Walker. One of the best horsewomen in Australia.”

Alicia dipped her hat. “Was. I just run pack nowadays.” One side of the brim was pinned up, held with sewing pins.

Zarya held out a hand to shake. “Aleksandra Zaryanova.”

“And I’m Lena.”

“Thank you so much for coming. Especially you--” Mei nodded at Zarya “--this really is Overwatch business.”

“I’m always glad to help with science.”

Mei smiled shyly. “Still, thank you.” Zarya looked away, and scratched the back of her head.

“What’s with the horses?” Lena asks.

“Past here, it’s impassable by car.” Alicia nodded up the hill. “But we’ve too much pack to carry, even for our big friend here. So we’re using horses.”

Mei tapped her index fingers together. “And the eco-watchpoint started transmitting again suddenly, and we are kinda--”

“--Close to the outback.” Alicia said. “So it’d help to have someone who knew what to do with rust-buckets.”

Zarya nodded.

Alicia clapped. “Enough chit-chat, let’s get you saddled up. I’ll follow half an hour behind with the pack, in case you run into trouble. Anyone ridden before?”

“Yep, I was a gymkhana kid, but I’m pretty rusty now,” Lena said.

Zarya raised an eyebrow. “You lived in the middle of a city.”

“You act like there’s no horses in the city.”

Alicia lead a little fleabitten pony over to Lena, and handed the reins over. “You’re really gonna get with Agi. Tightest turns, utter speed demon.”

Tracer grinned. “Sound like we will.”

She handed a sleepy looking gelding to Mei. “I know you and Woody get along. He needs to get a chance to be ridden instead of pack more anyway.”

Tracer had already mounted, looking far too tall for Agi, and Mei fiddled with the girth straps and stirrups.

“And what about you Miss, how much’ve you ridden?”

Zarya thought back to when she was little, and lived for the pony rides at the town fair. She’d only ever been lead around though, and she didn’t think it would’ve counted even if she remembered much of it. “No.”

Alicia looked her up and down, and chewed the bottom of her lip. “Holly’d be big enough for you. Bit of a schoolmaster anyway.” She pressed reins into Zarya’s hands. Holly was big, black and doe eyed, and a solid slab of muscle. Much bigger than the fluffy little shetlands she’d been gently lead around on. Holly bumped her with her nose, and nearly knocked her over.

Alicia grabbed her hand, and held it up against the saddle. She checked the stirrup leather against it. “Should be long enough. Come on, up the fence.”

An old wooden fence leaned and weaved its way along the roadside, separating the gravel from the wattle-y bush. Zarya climbed up to the top rail. The fence wobbled, but held.

“Okay, hold the end of the reins, left foot in the stirrup, and jump!”

Zarya hopped up, and her chest landed heavily on Holly’s back. Holly didn’t seem to notice. She scrambled up, and swung her right leg over.

“There ya go, wasn’t so hard was it?” Alicia grabbed one rein near the bit, and lead Holly over to where the rest of them were waiting.

Zarya didn’t have a fear of heights. She’d trained herself out of it. Walking along a tightrope several metres across the ground, or jumping down off a balcony? No sweat. But six feet up off the ground, sitting on a swaying platform out of her control? She grasped the pommel, hopping no one would notice.

“Now a death grip like that’ll pull you forward, and trip you both up.” Alicia prised her hands off the saddle. “Holly’s not the most balanced, so you really have to sit up straight.” Zarya did. She felt even more unsteady.

“Squeeze your legs to get her to go forward--” Alicia pressed Zarya’s ankle against the saddle, and Holly shuffled sideways a step. “Pull your left rein for left, right for right, both for stop. Lean forward uphill, back downhill.”

She reached up and clapped Zarya on the elbow. “And don’t look so scared, your friends’ll look after ya.”

Zarya nodded stiffly, and hoped the ride wouldn’t be too long. Whichever cave-man first looked at a horse, and thought ‘I should hop on this thing’s back’ had been utterly nuts. (Volunteering for this had been just as nuts--)

“You’ll get used to in ten minutes, no worries luv.”

“Let’s go,” Mei said, and walked off up the track. Lena and Agi trotted till they caught up. Zarya squeezed her legs, and Holly plodded off after her friends.

The first few minutes were quiet. Bright yellow bushes, wattles she’d been told, tried to consume the path, branches reaching out to the middle. They covered most of the hill side, turning the area into a lurid, powdery sea. She reached up to one of the flowers. It crumbled in her hands.

“I remember when I first set up the eco-watchpoint. There was a road then.” Mei stared up the hill, into the bushland. “It used to be an observatory. The university really didn’t want to give it up, but they didn’t have enough money for a new telescope when the fire came through. Gave us a chance to watch the land recover.”

She paused. “I’m sorry. I’m just being nostalgic for the old days.”

Lena leaned over to lay a hand on Mei’s shoulder. Agi’s ears flicked back. “Don’t apologise, luv.”

“It’s fine. They may not be the old days any more, if it still works.”

“Even if it just transmits, that should be useful,” Zarya said.

“The linchpin of a new network.” The radiopack on Mei’s belt made staticky beeps every few seconds, picking the signal up from the watchpoint. The tones were faint, and hard to pick out.

They were quiet, for a time. Zarya got used to be up so high, and started to move in sync with Holly’s footsteps. Tree shadows danced across the footpath, and kangaroos watched them from the brush, bouncing away as the got too close. “I didn’t realise kangaroos were so small.” She’d seen photos of them, human size and grey. These were little grey and milk-coffee, labrador sized things.

“Those aren’t kangaroos. They’re red necked wallabies.” Mei pushed up her glasses. “Usually you only see them at night.”

Zarya nodded, watching them bounded up through the trees. “Is that worrying?”

Mei shrugged. “I’m no biologist. Though I have a soft spot for some of the Aussie critters.”

“I thought most Australian animals would kill you as soon as you looked at them.”

“There’s some like that, but most are much more friendly. You should listen for the songbirds, they are really something.”

Zarya listened out. A few sharp ‘whip!’s chirped from a distance, along with a chortling whistle that came from just along the treeline.

Lena stopped and thought, cocking her head. _That’s worrying_ , Zarya thought. “Mei, what season is down here?”

“Spring, I think. Why do you ask?” Lena didn’t get a chance to answer, before Mei said “Oh.”

“They sound close.”

Zarya took a hand off the reins, and rested it on the grip of her particle cannon.

The chortling got louder, then stopped. “Keep an eye up in the trees, they’re less likely to attack if you do.”

Zarya scanned the canopy, looking for the tell tale metal glint of omnics. Nothing. “I can’t see anything.”

Lena pointed. “Up there. He’s guarding a nest.”

That information rattled through Zarya’s brain, and completely refused to process. “What?”

“There!” Lena’s voice dropped to sotto voce whisper.

Zarya followed her finger up. A black and white bird stared at them, with something worryingly human like in it’s expression. She relaxed, and put her hand back on the reins“It’s a bird.”

“It’s a magpie,” Lena said, like that was an explanation.

Mei turned in her saddle to watch it. “Some of the males don’t really like people.”

Something rushed low overhead, making a loud ‘clack!’. Zarya ducked, and Holly jumped sideways into Agi. Agi gallopped off up the path, nearly leaving Tracer behind.

Zarya lifted her head up in time to see the bird turn and rush back towards them.

“Keep an eye on it, it won’t swoop is we look at it,” Mei said, trying and failing to get Woody going.

“I’m not sure I believe that!” With the barest squeeze, Holly shot off after Agi. Zarya clung onto the pommel, torn between watching where she was going and the bird.

The magpie slammed into the back of Mei’s head. “Ow!”

Zarya reached towards her hip, getting ready to put her shield up.

Holly tripped. Zarya fell forward, and grabbed Holly’s neck. She pulled on the reins to slow her, but Holly kept trotting and veered to the left.

Zarya clung harder. Holly picked up the pace, racing towards Agi. Her trot nearly bounced Zarya out of the saddle. One more stumble, and she’d fall right off Holly’s neck, but Zarya couldn’t work out how to let go and climb back up without falling over.

The thing holding her on was what would maker her fly off.

Mei shouted in Mandarin. There was an a indignant

Holly jolted to a stop. Zarya slipped out of the saddle, and fell butt first onto the ground.

“You alright?” Lena sat on Agi, and texted. Agi grazed along the verge.

Zarya stood up, rubbing her sore hip. “I think so.” Holly bumped her shoulder with her muzzle.

“I was just letting our Aussie friend know about the magpie.”

“She replied?”

“Yeah, she said ‘that’d be Jack, he’s an asshole. Once you’re past the burnt tree he should leave you alone.”

A grey, sooty half stump stood at the verge, just in front of Agi.

_I am never doing this again._ Zarya put her foot in the stirrup, and tried to jump into the saddle. She got halfway up, scrambling the rest of the way.

She swore under her breath, and put the reins back in her hands.

Mei cantered up to them, holding the side of her head. She slowed Woody to a stop just next to the others.

Dark blood flowed between her fingers, down her forearm. Lena hissed. “You’ve been in the wars.”

“It’s not as bad as it looks.”

Zarya rummaged in Holly’s saddlebags, and passed a bottle of water of to Mei. “Thanks.” She took a swig, and then dumped the rest over her wound. “Let’s get going, I want to work on the watchpoint before the sun goes down.”

They set off, Zarya keeping an eye on the trees for any more murderous birds.

The rest of the ride up the hill was mercifully free of omnics or aggressive wildlife. Mei’s radio pack beeped louder and more frequently, picking up the signal from the old watchpoint.

It sat on the hill like a castle, with the eucalypts ringing it like a wall. Huge antennas reached up from the dome slit, wind-speed measuring cups spun round, and hidden cameras clicked and whirred as they went past. The beeps turned into morse code. Zarya frowned, and tried to decode it. The watchpoint chimed ‘Status: operational, time 1440, temperature 20 celsius, wind speed 11.1 kilometres per hour...’ on loop.

“Are you getting that?” Zarya asked.

Mei nodded. “But it could just be replaying old data.”

“Better than nothing,” Lena said.

The stopped in the shadow of the building, and dismounted. Woody set out to clear the ground around them, Holly and Agi helping him. Zarya jumped up and down, trying to get feeling back into her legs.

Mei pulled out a thermometer from her pack, and held it out in the air. “The temp data is accurate.”

Zarya scritched Holly on the top of the shoulder.

Mei put the thermometer back, and took out a phone. “If I can talk to it, then we know it works. It didn’t answer before, but that could have been distance--” She trailed off. Zarya understood. You had to hope at least some of your life’s work was still standing.

She typed, and hit enter.

The beeping stopped. Mei held her breath. It started chiming again: “Hello world!”

Mei broke out into a grin, and jumped up a down in happiness. Tracer joined her, and they spun on the spot.

Zarya stayed out of it. She couldn’t work out how to do it without coming across as fake. She stayed on the sidelines and smiled.

Holly bumped her on the shoulder with her nose. She reached over and patted her, Holly leaning into it. She did get along with Holly, stumbling aside. She regretted swearing off riding, she had enjoyed her time with Holly, before remembering she hadn’t said it out loud.

If Mei needed someone for protection and heavy-things-carrying again, she’d volunteer. Especially if it was round here with Holly.

Mei buzzed with excitement as they waited for Alicia and the pack to arrive, and looked through what data she could on the phone. Zarya read over her shoulder, and Mei rattled off explanations. _Yeah,_ Zarya thought, _I’d do this again._

***

Two weeks later, an email arrived in Zarya’s inbox. In her jetlagged daze, she saw the sender name in Hanzi and nearly deleted it as spam, till she saw the subject line: Pictures from Australia!

It read “Look at the rare critters we got snaps of on the trap cameras!” and a note in a tiny font in hanzi, that google translated roughly as “is it still a selfie if you set the camera up 10 years ago?”

Three pictures were attached: one of a spotted cat-fox thing carrying a dead bird in it’s mouth, a gormless looking owl with a huge mouth, and one of them on the trail ride. Lena was out of shot, with Agi’s muzzle just poking in. The back of Mei’s head and jacket stuck out from the left. Front and centre, Zarya sat on Holly, reins high and back straight, looking more pleased with herself than she remembered being.

She sent an email back. “If you need some more help with eco-watchpoints, I’ll see what I can do.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this fic. Just as a public safety anouncement: don't be like these guys; wear helmets when you are riding. Not just because of murderous magpies (but also wear them because that)


End file.
